Top Twenties of 2006. Because you care.

[Yeahduff]

End of year time. Time to revel in our elitist musical tastes and name check like the utter snobs we are. Here are my lists, feel free to post your own, even if you've only heard five records all year.

Top twenty albums.

1 Rainer Maria. Catastrophe Keeps Us Together.
2 Neko Case. Fox Confessor Brings the Flood.
3 Gnarls Barkley. St. Elsewhere.
4 Ghostface. Fishscale.
5 Art Brut. Bang Bang Rock And Roll.
6 TV On the Radio. Return To Cookie Mountain.
7 M. Ward. Post-War.
8 The Strokes. First Impressions of Planet Earth.
9 YeahYeahYeahs. Show Your Bones.
10 Van Hunt. On the Jungle Floor.
11 Mission of Burma. The Obliterati.
12 Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins. Rabbit Fur Coat.
13 Lupe Fiasco. Food & Liquor.
14 Mates of State. Bring It Back.
15 The Decemberists. The Crane Wife.
16 The Bell Rays. Have a Little Faith.
17 Belle & Sebastian. The Life Pursuit.
18 Amy Millan. Honey From the Tombs.
19 The Forecast. In the Shadow of Two Gunmen.
20 The Format. Dog Problems.


Top twenty singles.

1 TV On the Radio. Wolf Like Me.
2 Ladytron. Destroy Everything You Touch.
3 CSS. Let's Make Love, Listen to Death From Above.
4 Gnarls Barkley. Crazy.
5 The Strokes. You Only Live Once.
6 Jenny Lewis. Rise Up With Fists.
7 Metric. Monster Hospital.
8 Fiona Apple. Not About Love. (Jon Brion edit.)
9 TI. What You Know.
10 Camera Obscura. Lloyd, I'm Ready To Be Heartbroken.
11 Lily Allen. Smile.
12 YeahYeahYeahs. Gold Lion.
13 The Gossip. Standing In the Way of Control.
14 M. Ward. Chinese Translation.
15 Franz Ferdinand. L. Wells /The Fallen.
16 Ghostface. Be Easy.
17 The Clipse. Mr. Me Too.
18 Mates of State. Fraud In the Eighties.
19 St. Ettienne. Side Streets.
20 The Rapture. Get Myself Into It.

[TheSuburbanLetdown]

My musical tastes can't even be put into a top 20 style list.

[Yeahduff]

Well, what did you like in no particular order?

[TheSuburbanLetdown]

Albums
Saves the Day - Sound The Alarm
Rainer Maria - Catastrophe Keeps us together
My Chemical Romance - Black Parade
The Go! Team - Thunder, Lightning, Strike (dunno what year this is from, may not even be eligible)

That's pretty much all I care about from pop music this year.

singles. Sort of.
Phantom Regiment - Faust
Santa Clara Vanguard - Moto Perpetuo
Cavaliers - Machine
in.trance.it - Carolina Crown

Most of the other stuff I've listened to are older, not good enough to make a top whatever list in my opinion or are by dead composers that don't really have albums.

[Cryabetes]

Top 20 of the year (in no particular order)

1 TV on the Radio- Return to Cookie Mountain (5/5)
2 YYYs- Show Your Bones (4.9/5)
3 Cat Power- The Greatest (5/5)
4 the Flaming Lips- At War With The Mystics (4.6/5)
5 Jesu- Silver EP (4.6/5)
6 The Decemberists- the Crane Wife (4/5)
7 Malajube- Tromp-L'Oeil (3.7/5)
8 Mogwai- Friend of the Night EP (5/5)
9 Mogwai- Mr Beast (4.7/5)
10- Mogwai- Zidane: a 21st century portrait soundtrack (3/5)
11- Soundtrack to 'The Fountain' (3/5)
12- Mono- You Are There (4.4/5)
13- Sonic Youth- Rather Ripped (4.6/5)
14- Ratatat- Classics (4.8/5)
15- Pavement- Crooked Rain Crooked Rain: LA's desert origins [reissue w/ bonus tracks] (5/5 album, 2/5 bonus tracks)
16- Pavement- Wowee Zowee: Sordid Sentinels Edition [reissue w/ bonus tracks] (4.8/5 album, 5/5 bonus tracks)
17- Yo La Tengo- I am not afraid of you and I will beat your ass (4.1/5)
18- The Walkmen- A Hundred Miles off (3.9/5)
19- Thom Yorke- the Eraser (3.1/5- note: I really really hate track six. it is terrible)
20- Regina Spektor- Begin to Hope (4.3/5)

All in all, 2006 was kind of a disappointing year. Eh. New Explosions in the Sky and Eluvium next year that are really good.

[Mo]

See, my problem with these threads is that 80% of the music I buy is older records, because sometimes I like old music, plus music from a couple years back is on sale. New CDs are EXPENSIVE where I live (minimum 25$). So I rarely buy music when it's brand new - that only applies to my very favourite artists. Anyway...

Minor Majority - Reasons to hang around
Elvira Nikolaissen - Quiet exit
Bob Dylan - Modern times

Had I had more money, I would add to that list, but alas, 'twas a poor year for lil old me. Damn, now I'm depressed.

[Col]

I'm amazed at the amount of music I got this year that was new to me, but came out before 2006. No particular order...

1. Zero 7 - The Garden
2. Belle & Sebastian - The Life Pursuit
3. Flaming Lips - At War with the Mystics
4. Keane - Under the Iron Sea
5. Snow Patrol - Eyes Open
6. Beck - The Information
7. The Subdudes - Behind the Levee
8. Robert Randolph & the Family Band - Colorblind
9. My Chemical Romance - The Black Parade
10. Incubus - Light Grenades
11. David Gilmour - On an Island
12. Office - Q&A
13. Augustana - All the Stars and Boulevards
14. Deftones - Saturday Night Wrist
15. Ray LaMontagne - Till the Sun Turns Black
16. ...

Hm, seems there weren't more than fifteen albums that came out this year (that I bought) that I liked.

[Chaos Cricket]

My top ten (in no particular order, except for #1) are:

1. Bob Dylan, Modern Times
2. Flaming Lips, At War With The Mystics
3. Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins, Rabbit Fur Coat
4. The Raconteurs, Broken Boy Soldiers
5. Tom Petty, Highway Companion
6. Tom Waits, Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers, and Bastards
7. Thom Yorke, The Eraser
8. Bruce Springsteen, We Shall Overcome (The Seeger Sessions)
9. Golden Smog, Another Fine Day
10. Van Morrison, Pay the Devil

I don't listen to the radio, so I don't have any idea what the singles this year were or whether or not I liked any of them.

[Mo]

1. Bob Dylan, Modern Times
5. Tom Petty, Highway Companion

Whew, I thought I was gonna be the only one to choose Dylan. >_>

And I quite liked Highway Companion too, however I couldn't afford buying it yet. But I listened to it while at work at a record store.

[Chaos Cricket]

Yeah, Highway Companion was significantly better than anything Petty's put out since Wildflowers (though not as good as Wildflowers itself, I feel).

[Mo]

Yeah, Highway Companion was significantly better than anything Petty's put out since Wildflowers (though not as good as Wildflowers itself, I feel).

Word.

[Col]

Darn, I forgot to put Tom Petty's album on my Christmas list. I gotta go out and get that sucker.

[TheSuburbanLetdown]

I've been detached from the music scene ever since college ended. You really need to be around like-minded people to bounce things off each other.

[Chaos Cricket]

I've been detached from the music scene ever since college ended. You really need to be around like-minded people to bounce things off each other.

I also just really don't care for the current trends in popular music. The faux-New Wave, emo, poppy punk stuff that's coming down the pipe lately just doesn't do anything for me.

[Yeahduff]

Listening to the radio these days can be mighty difficult, but there's some good stuff if you pay enough attention. The best bet, though, seems to be MySpace pages or official websites for acts you're curious about. Free and legal.

I actually liked a lot of the Timbaland stuff that came out this year, as far as pop songs go. The three Nelly Furtado singles were great, and My Love by Justin Timberlake is really cool (Sexy Back, not so much).

[Col]

I also just really don't care for the current trends in popular music. The faux-New Wave, emo, poppy punk stuff that's coming down the pipe lately just doesn't do anything for me.

Holy crap, it's you! For some reason it took me a while to register you were posting in here. Nice to see ya!

In other news: Eight to One's board here has helped me find some new stuff since it got hooked on music talk. I listen to the New Pornographers a heck of a lot more than ever before (aka, at all). iTunes' "Single of the Week" has proven to bear precious gems every so often as well.

[Yeahduff]

Then it seems it was worth it then. We're here to help.

And Pornographers are great. Definitely one of my favorites.

[Deadmonkeyfetus]

top 20 (albums not from this year, but they're my favorite albums that I listened to this year)

20. Dinosaur Jr. - You're Living All Over Me
19. Sondre Lerche - Two Way Monologue
18. The Cure - Kiss me Kiss Me Kiss Me
17. The Subhumans - The Day the Country Died
16. Against Me! - Reinventing Axl Rose
15. The Gibbons - Hope, INC.
14. Jets To Brazil - Perfecting Loneliness
13. MSI - Frankenstein Girls Will Seem Strangely Sexy
12. Sondre Lerche - Two Way Monologue
10. Yeah yeah yeahs - Show your bones
11. AFI - Black Sails
9. Choking Victim - No Gods, No Managers
8. Dead Kennedys - Fresh Fruits For Rotting Vegetables
7. Descendents - Milo Goes To College
6. Sondre Lerche - Two Way Monologue
5. None More Black - This is Satire
4. The Lawrence Arms - Oh, Calcutta!
3. Placebo - Meds
2. Kid Dynamite - Shorter, Faster, Louder
1. Lifetime - Jersey's Best Dancers

[Deadmonkeyfetus]

1. Bob Dylan, Modern Times
5. Tom Petty, Highway Companion

Whew, I thought I was gonna be the only one to choose Dylan. >_>

I'm not a big Dylan fan, but that album was surprisingly alright. My girlfriend played it a couple times when I came over. She said it wasn't one of his bests, but it was pretty excellent.

[Chaos Cricket]

1. Bob Dylan, Modern Times
5. Tom Petty, Highway Companion

Whew, I thought I was gonna be the only one to choose Dylan. >_>

I'm not a big Dylan fan, but that album was surprisingly alright. My girlfriend played it a couple times when I came over. She said it wasn't one of his bests, but it was pretty excellent.

It may not be one of his absolute best (it's not really on par with Highway 61 Revisited, Blonde on Blonde, or even 2001's Love and Theft), but it's a damn-sight better than most of the stuff put out in the last year (in my opinion anyway. Admittedly, my opinion has to be taken with a rather large grain of salt: I even have Dylan's crappy early '80s evangelical Christian albums, so I don't think I'm an unbiased source here).